Rondo Of The Earth And Mist
by mukirome
Summary: When Adelheid hears about how Chrome protected Enma, she insists that Enma pay back his debt. Somehow, this simple task ends up with Chrome moving in with the Shimon Family. 0096.
1. Chapter 1

**Rondo Of The Earth And Mist**

**Chapter 1**

Kozato Enma was exhausted. He had just returned home from the Vongolian welcome party, that had been thrown in honour of the Vongola's tenth generation mist guardian, Chrome Dokuro, becoming a fellow student of Namimori Middle School.

If this had been a few weeks ago, Enma would have never in a million years imagined he would of been able to enjoy the company of the Vongola Family but the tragic misunderstandings of the past had finally been resolved and Enma had now joined his Vongola friends in their hectic daily life.

Enma smiled fondly remembering the events at the party that had tired him out. Despite laughing and grinning his face off, there were also multiple times he felt like his life would perish, thanks to the explosive Lambo and Gokudera Hayato, the icy Suzuki Adelheid and most importantly, the baby that had organized the party, Reborn. Even with all his energy drained from trying to survive, he didn't hate a single moment. Enma had gotten himself sucked into the extreme pace of the Vongola but he didn't regret it. Because it was fun.

Taking his shirt off and tossing it atop of his bed, Enma was about to take his pants off, when his bedroom door opened, behind him.

"Ah, Adel, I'm changing here!" complained Enma, seeing the tall, familiar figure of his closest family member, enter his room.

Adelheid glared at him, "I don't care about that. What I want to know is why you failed to inform me about you being protected by Chrome Dokuro?"

Seeing Adelheid not even showing the slightest tinge of embarrassment at seeing Enma's exposed body, made Enma die a little inside. Not that he liked Adelheid romantically or anything but still, Loser Enma strikes again. _I can't even get a girl flustered by seeing my pathetic excuse for a chest,_ Enma bitterly thought.

Sighing, Enma answered Adelheid's question,"I thought you already knew about it, besides, it's not that big of a deal. There's no need to get mad about it."

"No, I did not know about it. My first time hearing the story was from Bianchi at the welcome party and it is an important deal. Chrome protected your life and I bet you haven't even done anything in gratitude!" yelled Adelheid, in irritation.

"Well," now that Enma thought about it, he couldn't recall ever showing Chrome that he had appreciated what she had done for him.

"Tomorrow, you are going to pay back your debt to her," Adelheid instructed.

"Pay my debt? How exactly am I supposed to do that?" Enma moaned, before being silenced by Adelheid's death gaze.

"That's up to you but I will not accept any failure, Enma," Adelheid uttered, before closing the door as she departed Enma's room.

Sighing, even louder than before, Enma flopped onto the soft surface of his bed. He was clueless as to how to pay back Chrome. He had no idea about anything she would enjoy. Now that he pondered it, he didn't really know that much at all about the girl who had risked her life for him.

* * *

><p>"Enma, what are you doing for the rest of the day?" Sawada 'Tsuna' Tsunayoshi asked Enma, when school ended the next day.<p>

"Uh, nothing really," mumbled Enma.

"Then you should hang with us. We're going to go catch a movie and it will be fun," encouraged Yamamoto Takeshi, with his usual, carefree smile.

"It will be fun," Gokudera mimicked, mocking the baseball player. Glaring at Enma, he muttered, "I guess it's okay for you to tag along, seeing as the Tenth says so."

"Yeah, I'l-" Enma cut himself off, in sudden realization. Looking around the half-empty classroom and failing to locate his target, Enma frantically questioned, "Where's Chrome?"

Blinking his brown eyes in surprise, Tsuna responded, "I think she already left," and was left bewildered as he witnessed Enma dash out of the classroom.

Enma had completely forgotten his promise to Adelheid to express his gratitude to Chrome. Not that he promised anything but still, he did not want to know what punishment Adelheid would cook up for him if he failed his misson.

He breathed a giant sigh of relief as he caught sight of his target's pineapple hairstyle, by the shoe lockers. "Chrome," he called out to her.

Making his way over to her, Enma saw her flinch at the sound of her name and she now looked over at Enma, confusion lighting up in her only visible eye.

"Um, hey, Chrome. I just wanted to thank you for, ah, helping me out on my family's island and I was, uh, wondering if there was any why I could pay you back," stammered Enma.

"It's okay, you don't need to do anything," Chrome bluntly stated, in her soft, bell-like voice.

"C'mon, there must be something I can do," Enma pleaded, desperately, already imagining Adelheid's annoyed expression.

Chrome immediately answered, "There isn't. I have to go now because I''m meant to be looking for a new place to stay," her voice growing blue, as she remembered being chucked away from her last home.

"Why don't you stay with my family, then?" Enma blurted out, wondering what the hell he was thinking.

"That's an interesting idea," a new voice entered the conversation. Feeling a weight on his shoulder, Enma jumped at seeing the Arcobaleno, Reborn, relaxing on his shoulder.

"Where did you come from, Reborn?" questioned the stunned red head.

Ignoring the boy, Reborn announced, "Chrome, you're going to start living with the Shimon Family."

"Eh?" Chrome and Enma simultaneously cried out, looking at each other's astounded faces.

"You can't just go around determining everything by yourself, Reborn. We still have to see if Adelheid and the others are fine with it," Enma attempted to protest.

"Perfect timing, we can ask Adelheid right now," Reborn remarked, causing Enma to notice that Adelheid was headed straight towards them. "Adelheid, your boss has just made the wonderful decision to allow Chrome to live with you and the rest of the Shimon but I wanted to make sure that you agreed with your boss' decision."

_She's going to refuse,_ Enma's mind believed but the words Adelheid declared, shocked Enma's system to his core.

"I have no problems with allowing Chrome to live with us. After all, she protected our boss, so granting this little task is the least the Shimon can do."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Even though 6996 is still my fav KHR pairing but ever since Chrome created a barrier for Enma, I have loved this pairing. So, this fic is set after the Inheritance Ceremony Arc but before the Curse of The Rainbow Arc. Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Make yourself at home," Adelheid told Chrome, as the two girls and Enma entered the residence of the Shimon Family.

"Okay," nodded Chrome, following behind Adelheid and Enma. They stopped once they reached the living room, where they found Aoba Koyo watching t.v.

"Where are the others?" asked Adelheid, noticing the rest of the family was absent.

"Kaoru is in his room, Rauji is playing with the stupid cow, Shitopi is out stalking Gokudera and Julie is around here, somewhere," Koyo answered, flatly, not even bothering to remove his gaze from the television.

"Why's cute, little Chrome here?" Katou Julie suddenly appeared beside the trio, wrapping his arm over Chrome's shoulder.

"Uh, Chrome is go-" Enma started replying before halting himself, after seeing Adelheid's scary reaction.

"Julie, when will you quit being a pervert?" raged Adelheid, beating Julie to a bloody pulp with her fan weapon.

"So, why is a member of the Vongola here?" Koyo inquired, as he checked out what the loud commotion was.

Enma told him, "Chrome doesn't have a place to stay at the moment, so Reborn and Adel decided she would stay here."

"I'm going to begin preparing dinner," muttered Adelheid, ending her brutal assult on Julie, who was now moaning in agony, in a corner of the room. "Turn that t.v. off and complete your homework," she ordered the boys.

"But Adel, there is no school tomorrow," Enma feebly protested.

Glaring at Enma, she barked, "That doesn't matter. It is better to finish your work as soon as possible, instead of saving it until the last minute."

"Fine, I'll go do it," Enma reluctantly agreed. Turning to Chrome he asked, "Chrome, what are you going to do?"

"Um, I was wondering if I could help the glacier person in the kitchen," she mumbled, timidly, her pale face now glowing a faint tinge of rose.

Hearing Chrome call Adelheid a "glacier person" made the three boys burst into fits of clamorous laughter.

"Glacier person, yup, that definately is our frozen hearted Adelheid," Julie managed to cough out between sniggers.

Tilting her head in confusion, Chrome explained, "But it's her flame."

The noisy laughter was rudely cut short by the piercing scream of Julie being struck by an obviously annoyed Adelheid. Calming herself down, she answered Chrome, "You don't need to call me by my flame type. Just call me Adel and yes, I wouldn't mind if you helped me prepare dinner."

"Thank you... Adel," Chrome gave out a sweet, small, smile, before following Adel into the kitchen. Enma headed to his own room as instructed but he was surprised by the rapid beating of his heart that had gone into motion after witnessing Chrome's smile.

* * *

><p>"You can take the bed."<p>

"No, I'm fine. It's your bed, you should sleep in it, Enma," Chrome declared, speaking Enma's name for the first time.

It was now hours after Chrome had moved into the Shimon residence. People say that food is the way to enter someone's heart and Enma now believed the old saying, as the entire Shimon Family accepted Chrome into their household after digging into the delicious food she had whipped up, alongside Adelheid. Despite Chrome blushing brightly in extreme embarrassment, Enma could tell that she was pleased that they had welcomed her so easily.

After dinner, however, is where things got awkward. The house only had five bedrooms , with Enma, Adelheid and Shitt P the lucky ones who didn't have to share their rooms. With Chrome being female and all, Enma figured that she would stay in Adel or Shitopi's bedroom but Adel had insisted that Chrome stay in Enma's room. Her logic was because Enma was the boss and should therefore take responsibility of their new flatmate.

Enma had attempted to argue back but he failed miserably. Even though he was apparently the boss of the family, he was just too terrified of the leader of the liquidation committee to ever fight back seriously. So, because of his cowardice, he was stuck in this uncomfortable predicament.

"You're the guest here, Chrome. So you can take the bed. Don't worry, I have a futon I can sleep in," Enma assured her, leaving the room and quickly returning with the futon he had obtained from the closet in the hallway, which he promptly rolled out onto the floor.

"Thank you," Chrome whispered, kindly.

"Huh, aren't you going to change your clothes?" quizzed Enma, watching Chrome hop into the cosy bed, still outfitted in the uniform of Nami Middle.

"The only other clothes I have is the Kokuyo School uniform," her soft voice, quivered at the thought of her important people who had so cruelly abandoned her.

Hearing her answer, Enma rummaged around through his drawers and pulled out a shirt and a pair of pants which he tossed to Chrome. "You can sleep in those," he uttered and turned his back on her, to give her a bit of privacy.

For the next few minutes, Enma heard the rustling of clothes as Chrome dressed behind him. "I'm done," she announced and Enma giggled in amusement, when he saw how the slightly too large clothes hung loosely on Chrome's petite frame.

Her face burning, she swiftly jumped into the bed and faced the wall next to her. Enma also made his way inside his futon and then the two simultaneously greeted each other, "Goodnight," neither of them noticing the peaceful smiles that had appeared on each other's faces.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know a lot of people hate that Chrome helped Kyoko and Haru cook in the future but I'm not one of them. The reason I put it in this fic was because it fits Chrome's personality and because (other than collecting skull stuff) it is the only thing she has really expressed in interest in, in the manga. Anyway, thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Why is Chrome wearing her uniform? There's no school today," asked Ooyama Rauji, the following morning, when Chrome and Enma entered the dining room, where Adelheid was already serving the family breakfast.

"These are my only clothes," blushed Chrome, as she felt the many eyes of the Shimon focused on her.

"Adel, do you think you could lend Chrome some clothes?" Enma inquired.

"Enma, I think we need to get your eyes checked," Julie answered, instead of Adelheid. "It's obvious that Adel's clothes would be way too large for Chrome because she hasn't been blessed with magnificently large bre- ughhhhhh!" he screamed out in agony after being cruelly interrupted by a powerful kick from Adelheid.

Ignoring the whimpering Julie, Adelheid admitted, "Julie is correct. Even without taking into account Julie's observation, my clothes still wouldn't fit her due to the difference in our height."

"We could buy Chrome some clothes," Mizuno Kaoru suggested, after swallowing a mouthful of blueberry pancakes.

"Leave it all to me. I'll make sure to transform Chrome into a stu-" enthusiastically began Julie, before halting his words after seeing the glare that Adelheid inflicted at him.

"Enma will go with Chrome," she decided.

"Huh? Shouldn't you take Chrome, Adel? I, mean, I don't know the first thing about girl's clothing, so it would make more sense if you went with Chrome," Enma replied.

"I agree with you, Enma but I have liquidation committee business to attend to today."

"Then how about Shitopi?"

Rauji joined in the conversation, "She's meditating. Knowing her, it could last all day."

"And the rest of us have better things to do with our time," Koyo remarked, bluntly, as he exited the room, having eaten all of his breakfast.

Grinning, Julie commented, "Well, I have plenty of free time avaliable, so I can take Chrome off your hands, Enma."

"No, you will be assisting me today, Julie," Adelheid calmly stated.

Rapidly batting his eyes, Julie stared incredulously at her, "Huh, since when? I never agreed to help you with your stuffy work."

"You don't get a choice. Someone needs to keep an eye on you before you get arrested for sexual harrassment. Enma, you better help Chrome find some clothes or I'm afraid I will have to invoke judgement on you," Adelheid coldy uttered, dragging the protesting Julie along with her, as they left the house.

Watching them depart, Enma suddenly realised that he had failed to notice when Rauji and Kaoru had also vanished and now he found himself alone with the nervous looking Chrome.

"It's okay, Enma. You don't have to do anything for me. Just letting me stay in your home is enough," Chrome's bell-like voice chimed.

The irritation that had been fuming up inside Enma after being forced into this situation, disappeared once he witnessed the slight tinge of sadness emitting out of the girl next to him. Putting a smile on his face, Enma replied, "I want to help you, Chrome. I wouldn't be able to call myself your friend if I did otherwise, besides, I'm sure it could be fun going shopping."

"Friend?" whispered Chrome, her only eye staring at the toe of her boots, as her face turned beet-red.

"You, sure do, blush a lot, Chrome" Enma cheerfully laughed.

Blinking her large eye, Chrome's embarrassed lips revealed, "It's inherited."

* * *

><p>Enma and Chrome entered one of the fashion boutiques that littered the shopping district in town. Finding their way inside, Enma's mind went blank as he looked around his colouful surroundings, taking note of the various different types of clothes avaliable.<p>

"Chrome, go ahead and pick whatever clothes you want," instructed Enma, once he had recovered from the shock of seeing the inside of a woman's store for the first time in his life.

"I don't know what clothes I want," Chrome muttered, under her breath.

"Then just try these ones on until you find something you like," Enma grabbed random pieces of clothing off of the racks and dragged Chrome to one of the changing stalls, where he shoved the pile of clothes he had collected into her arms. Closing the curtain, Enma folded his arms across his chest, while he patiently waited for Chrome to finish playing dress-up.

"Hahi, it's Enma. Hi, Enma!" Enma looked up when he heard a noisy female voice shout out his name and saw a girl, her hair tied up in a ponytail, dashing towards him. Behind the girl he knew as Miura Haru, he saw his classmate Sasagawa Kyoko, trailing after her best friend.

"What are you doing here?" Kyoko innocently asked.

Enma answered honestly, "I'm here with Chrome. What about you guys?"

Beaming as bright as the sun, Haru ecstatically responded, "Today is Haru Appreciation Day, so Kyoko and I came out to taste the scrumptious new cakes at our favourite bakery. We just finished eating when we passed by this store and I found the most amazing top ever but it was too expensive, desu!" her formally radiant smile, turned into an upset pout.

At that moment, a saleswoman, dressed in an elegant little black dress, appeared before the trio and inquired of Enma, "Has your girlfriend found something she likes yet?"

"Eh?" Enma cried, his cheeks warming up at the mention of the word, girlfriend.

The lady opened her mouth to continue but closed it and abandoned the group to go assist another customer who was requesting advice.

Suddenly, Enma found Haru's face, now scrunched up in a scrowl, extremely close to his own, "What did she mean by girlfriend? I thought you said you were with Chrome."

"I am with Chrome."

"Hahi, then does that mean you and Chrome are dating?" she interrogated.

"N-no," stuttered Enma.

"Wow, you look adorable," Kyoko happily declared, causing both Enma and Haru to notice that Chrome had appeared from the other side of the curtain.

Enma had to agree with Kyoko's assessment. Wearing a loose off the shoulder top over a grey singlet, a ruffled mini skirt, made with the same black fabric as her top, that had dark purple skulls and stars splattered all over, Chrome's ensemble was completed with a pair of fingerless gloves and simple, white thigh-highs and Enma found his heart racing steadily, as he admired Chrome's new look.

His thoughts were crashed to a halt, when Haru pulled him away by the ear. Before he could offer one word of complaint, Haru cut to the chase, "If you break Chrome's heart, you will have me to answer to."

"But I told you already, Chrome and I aren't a couple."

"Fine, you may not be romantically linked now but I saw the look you just shot Chrome with. It was the wonderful, beautiful sight of young love blooming," Haru swooned, holding her grinning head in her arms, as she daydreamed about her own love.

Enma decided to leave this energetic girl and returned to where Kyoko was continuing to compliment Chrome on her attire.

Noticing Enma's arrival, Chrome wondered, "Do you think these clothes look good on me?"

"Yeah, they suit you," he sincerely praised and Chrome sweetly smiled back in reply. Enma felt butterflies in his stomach and the rapid pulsing of his heart. He had initially rejected Haru's love comments but now, he was starting to ponder, if he had, indeed, fallen for Chrome Dokuro.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I was too lazy to think up an outfit for Chrome, so the outfit I described in this chapter is the one she wears on the side of volume 30 of the manga. Halloween is really soon and I kind of feel like giving the next chapter a Halloween theme. Thing is, I don't really have any ideas for a Halloween special yet, so if you have any suggestions, let me know. Anyway, thanks for reading and hopefully you'll leave me a review.**


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